Hey Simon:not only in Chico. A couple of months ago, we had on up here!! within a mile of me, I could hear it, and radar was showing it just to my south, about 2K ft. elevation in the forest!! Supposedly unprecedented to have one in a mountainous area. I live right on the edge of about an 800' elevation drop within a mile. Luckily the cell follow the "scarp" of that rise.

Good Morning allNow that my family is away skiing it is so quiet.I love Disneyland..the wonder of it and riding around on the boat and cars over and overhelped me prepare for BRC Actually Yggy , multiple generations tripping around anywhere is a learning experience I think.and check out the Youtube German documentary of the Haight..,explaining all of that in German." haight-ashbury " documentary german t.v - (pt 1 of 3). Have a great day !

Simon of the Playa wrote:on my screen the warning popped up last night, and i looked at the map, and it was a "WTF" moment...

i suppose i-5 would make a natural tunnel, especially as you get north of Vaca...but in winter, it seems highly unusual.

yeah, and IIRC, we are in an "El Nino" year, and the weather is a little different, anyway. But over the last 10 years or so, more and more tornadoes are touching down in the Central Valley.Mostly S.F. latitude north. Interestingly, the cells and storm that spawned the tornadoe near me, went very near "Beale AFB" which is a very high security NORAD type base about 40 miles from here. Many of the tornadoes are withing a 40 mile radius of said base...........

im not sure this whole shift that SAIC and the DoD has undergone to change the nature of warfare into a simulated joy-stick controlled world of remote bunkers run by pimply faced kids who have spent their entire lives playing video games to prepare them for continuous conflict.

just my humble opinion...

the desensitizing nature, as well as the limited casualties makes war too clinical, clean, and acceptable.

HG & RD, in principle, I agree. But do leaders who have not sat in the mud (or don't have to) really learn? From their perch, they say, "hey, you guys, go fight"? Drone warfare is desensitizing, but if it results in fewer casualties, perhaps it is the best we can expect from the world's flawed leadership. As for me, make love not war! Simplistic, yes, but "wouldn't it be loverly?"

Remember, our winters are different beasts than yours. Out here wintertime is a lot like spring and fall in the midwest and northeast - wetter, windier, and lower temps than in summertime. Tornadoes are still fairly unusual, but things do get a little weird.

yeah in a real sense, Simon, I agree that war is to "clinical", and remote.To subvert a phrase: "All the romance" of war is gone...........and by that I mean the human drama of face to face death and suffering. It's so remote. I'd bet, so many would be less willing, if it was still swords and axes.Sure, the guy blown up sees it, but the person on the other end it often far, far away.one could only imagine the impact, of your foes last breath in your face, and watching the life go from their eyes.........if only the "leaders" could be there.

The censorship of news should disturb everyone.Now it reaches from insults to violence, from the bbc to abc.

The tours sound like a lot of fun, but when I was at disney it hadn't occurred to them that the technical might be more interesting, even though there was at least one docko about it.The security paranoia would explain it.

A friend's father flew the SR71 in the early days.In those days they had to taxi right into the hangar glowing red hot, since the plane didn't exist.He has a collection of melted helmets.A ufo indeed then.

burner von braun wrote:...the derailleur on the old Schwinn got pretty wonky near the end of my burn last time. (any thoughts on internal hubs?)

I agree internal gear hubs seem to work well.

Derailers do indeed tend to clog, but they usually free right up with a little WD-40. Water would probably work in a bind, but then you have an instant rust problem. WD-40 is mostly a cleaning solvent similar to kerosene, and then it leaves a thin film of light oil that is not much of a lubricant, but serves very well to protect against rust.

Figjam, is that snow?? Does your place have some sort of centralized heating system??

We deal with that pesky white stuff for at least 5 months every winter, and it is at worst an inconvenience. Since, we have the proper clothes, boots, etc. Even our vehicles are prepped for each winter (winter survival kit, booster cables, shovel, block heater, etc).

At my folks place, they had about 4 feet of snow build up on their roof. It took my son about 2 hours to shovel the roof off (using a roof shovel from the ground), and a good hour to deal with the extra snow when he was done...

Roof.jpg

Love Rice

Roach: "I feel like in this day and age, every girl should know how to build a flamethrower."

burner von braun wrote:...the derailleur on the old Schwinn got pretty wonky near the end of my burn last time. (any thoughts on internal hubs?)

I agree internal gear hubs seem to work well.

Derailers do indeed tend to clog, but they usually free right up with a little WD-40. Water would probably work in a bind, but then you have an instant rust problem. WD-40 is mostly a cleaning solvent similar to kerosene, and then it leaves a thin film of light oil that is not much of a lubricant, but serves very well to protect against rust.

I gotta say, unsurprisingly considering the source, this is the first time I've seen WD-40 and bikes spoken about correctly at the same time!

Brr Rice, I get shivers just looking at that pic. I don't miss shoveling the roof, of shoveling at all for that matter. Today was bad enough, not only did I have to wear a jacket but for a minute there I thought I could see my breath when I exhaled. Another unseasonal cold snap for us, it'll hopefully move on through by the end of the week.

Not only is it time for a drink, but I'm making mine a double (vodka for everybody!). We got awkward news from our landlord, and will have to move in the next few months. The building had been sold recently, and the new owners met with the city and it turns out that the previous owner had illegally cut up some of the units - including ours! Anyhow, the city's giving them no wiggle room, they have to return the units to the old configurations. We'll have to move while they bring in contractors. It wasn't an eviction notice per se, but telling us that at some point in the next few months we'll get a 60 day notice. Bastards! Drink!